Dome Plateau & Yellow Cat Areas
November, 1, 2009
Since I had changed my mind about camping in the San Rafael Swell the day before, my Sunday was now free to go exploring elsewhere. I didn’t want to get too far away from home, so I ended up heading out to the Dome Plateau & Yellow Cat areas north of Arches and Moab to explore some other trails and spurs in the area I had not been on yet. I started out heading towards Moab on UT 128, but turned off a few miles before the old Dewey Bridge onto Wood Road.
Early section of Wood Road
Nice views over Yellow Jacket Canyon and Squaw Park
After following a section of the Kokopelli Trail, I turned off and found some good dinosaur footprints….actually some of the best I have seen so far.
This would have been a great view of the Fisher Towers and the La Sal Mountains if it wasn’t so hazy…
Soon I connected up with the Yellow Cat Trail and passed by these cabins again.
When I reached the Dome Plateau Road (aka The Highlands Road), I took a left and followed it to the end.
On my way back from the overlook at the end, I took the short Winter Camp Ridge Trail to it’s end at the Arches National Park boundary. Delicate Arch was only a little over a mile away from there, it might be cool to try to hike to it from this direction sometime.
A lot of this road was sandy and fun to drive
Jug Rock at the park boundary
On my way back from the end of this spur, this caught my eye along the side of the road, so I had to stop and take a few photos…
There is also a slot canyon just below the Winter Camp Ridge Trail that I need to head back to and checkout sometime. After heading back out to the Yellow Cat Trail, I continued on to follow the short spur that ended at an overlook of Salt Wash.
Loading up on some ore
On my way to the overlook of Salt Wash….Arches National Park in the distance
When I reached the Yellow Cat Trail yet again, I took a right onto the Salt Valley Gorge Road that would take me right into Thompson, where I could fill up on fuel again before heading home.
Of course I didn’t just want to hop on the interstate to head back home, so I continued up to Sego Canyon and stopped at the pictographs.
Then I took the Sagers Canyon Trail that follows along the Book Cliffs before descending to Sagers Canyon and heading back to the highway.
I made it back home with plenty of daylight still to spare, even after the time change earlier in the day 🙂